India coach Rahul Dravid was elated about pacer Jasprit Bumrah’s comeback to international cricket ahead of the important Asia Cup 2023 and the World Cup 2023 tournaments. The Asia Cup begins on August 30.
Bumrah had to miss 11 months of game time after aggravating his back injury during the home T20I series against Australia. He then proceeded to miss the Asia Cup 2022, the T20 World Cup 2022, and the home Australia Test series earlier this year.
The Gujarat pacer underwent surgery to rectify the issue and after a lengthy rehab at the NCA, recently made his comeback to the Indian team in the Ireland T20I series, where he also captained the Men in Blue side to a 2-0 series win and was named the Player of the Series.
Ahead of departing for the Asia Cup tournament on August 30, India coach Rahul Dravid conveyed his delight at the complete squad's return, yet indicated the team would carefully manage Bumrah's reintegration.
"Yeah, so it’s great to have them back and see them bowling, and bowling well, is truly good. "Jasprit is someone we’ve missed a lot over the last two years. I must say he’s not played a lot of games. But it’s nice to have him back and we’ll ease him into it, slowly.
"It was nice for him to get those 4 overs sort of, like the tour of Ireland, for both of them to ease in with sort of some four overs of bowling. And then now gives us a chance in the Asia Cup to build that up and pick that up and we have a whole month now to build that up before the World Cup as well.
So, yes, it does give us more options in the pace-bowling department. It gives us an opportunity to have more resources, especially in a long tournament like a World Cup,” Dravid was quoted by PTI.
In his first stint as head coach at the senior men's World Cup, Dravid exuded confidence in the team's readiness for the World Cup 2023 and anticipates a closely-fought tournament.
"Yeah, there’s going to be a certain amount of pressure associated with it, which is most welcome and, which I think we all expect. But also to be able to play in front of your home crowds, your fans, is going to be very special for everyone and we hope we can have a really good tournament.
I think we’ve prepared, we’re preparing well, we’re building up nicely. It’s all hopefully coming together nicely with some of the guys coming back from injury just at the right time for us and hopefully, we can give them a few games and set it up well,” Dravid said about India’s preparation for the ICC event.
"There are going to be some really good teams in this tournament. I think that whole thing of home advantage, especially in the subcontinent now has been reduced to a large extent over the last 10-12 years because people come and play here so much, especially in tournaments like the IPL.
We feel confident, we’re really excited. I’m looking forward to it as a coach. I’m really looking forward to it as well,” he concluded.
India will play Pakistan on September 2nd and Nepal on September 4th in Sri Lanka in their Group A matches in Asia Cup 2023.
(PTI inputs)
